


Brave

by Paradise_Found



Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe, F/M, Family, Gen, Love, Mother-Daughter Relationship, One Shot, Self-Indulgent, Slice of Life, Villains make good daddies, a fucking daddy, idgaf about canon, otp, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:21:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29318541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paradise_Found/pseuds/Paradise_Found
Summary: Brave: to be unapologetically yourself; daring to be different; to do something just because it’s right.
Relationships: Eleena Daru/Darth Malgus
Kudos: 2





	Brave

My eyes snap open with the sinking feeling that I overslept. The chrono beside my pillow tells me that yes, I have overslept. I jolt upright and get my gear on as fast as I can with sleep still stirring in me. Years of being in the Imperial Special Forces have trained me to armour myself with no time to spare. I grab my blaster rifle along with my vibroblade and make my way out of the barracks. 

I pass the mess hall and run towards my objective. The hall is empty, save for a couple of janitorial droids cleaning up the debris left from the frenzy of breakfast. I check the time. Just one minute to spare. I can run there in a minute, I think. I am going to have to.

Panting, I stop at the closed door of my assigned post. Right on time, which means I am late. I look around. No one seems to notice my tardiness. I compose myself from my run, slowing my breathing and loosening the grip on my blaster rifle. 

I don’t like this. It was with extreme misfortune that I had to accept this mission. “No” does not exist in my lexicon. Bodyguard assignments are never a good thing. Put me in the middle of a battlefield, I can sort myself out there, in the midst of blaster fire going in every direction. That moment of serenity when you’re suspended by an explosion in mid-air, that is where I live, that is where I thrive, that is where I crave to be. Not here, not as a bodyguard for Emperor knows how long. I bite my lip under my helmet. I don’t like this. 

There are rumours. Rumours that I don’t pay much attention to. But when it’s all your crews would talk about, it inevitably gets stuck in your consciousness. I don’t particularly care for the love life of a Sith, but even I have to wonder, as hollow and broken as I am, what is the significance of this woman, this Twi’lek woman to him? Why bring her all the way out here? Why the unnecessary baggage?

The door hiss open. The Twi’lek woman stands by the doorway with a smile to greet me. A little hand holds one of hers beside her, and the other free little hand holds a doll. Strange, very strange.

“Ahh, you must be Captain Liu. Good morning,” the Twi’lek woman says.

“My lady.” I bow.

“Please do not bow to me. I am not Sith, and please call me Eleena.” 

“As you wish, my—Eleena.” Her name comes out of me awkwardly. 

“And this is Valoria. Say hello Valoria.” She looks down at the little girl beside her. Big green eyes look back at me commanding, though a fraction, of the kind of attention only a Sith can. I take my helmet off, fearing that I might be scaring the child with my headgear. I meet her gaze with mine. I smile and hope that it is as soft and warm as I envision it to be. Upon the sight of me without my helmet, she gasps, a small and timid gasp, and hides behind her mother. 

“It’s alright Valoria. Captain Liu will be with us for the day, and the rest of the week.” Eleena smiles again. I have known this assignment would be long, and truthfully, a week isn’t long, but I’d rather step in a field full of landmines than to have this unease for the next several days. 

I crouch to the level of the little girl. If I am to be with them for an entire week, I might as well make the most of it. 

“Hello, Valoria. My name is Takumi. It’s very nice to meet you. I hope my helmet didn’t scare you.” Valoria backs away, her face deep in her mother’s long coat, only peering at me through an uncovered eye. 

“She’s not usually shy.” Eleena cups a reassuring hand to her daughter’s head. 

“It’s alright, probably the helmet.” I offer with a weak smile. Her reaction to me is fitting. Children are always more honest than adults. 

I let the pair of them walk in front of me as I latch my helmet. They lead me to the lift. They both get on, I follow behind.

“Valoria, time to get your warmers on.” Eleena kneels in front of her daughter and takes out a bundle of thick, thermal fabric from her satchel. She dresses Valoria’s lekkus in each long knitted tube, wraps the fabric around her face and fastens it under her chin. It makes Valoria’s face fuller than before, pink plump cheeks glisten in the chill of the air. Her mother pulls the flap of fabric on the side to cover her mouth and nose so that only her eyes are exposed. I try to look away, attempting to give them the respect of privacy.

“Let’s put Markus in your backpack.” Eleena gestures at the doll in Valoria’s hand.

“No!” Valoria clutches the doll closer to her

“What if he gets dirty? or lost? You don’t want to lose Markus, do you?” she asks.

“NO!” Valoria protests with defiance, hiding her doll closer to her little chest. She turns away from her mother’s confiscating hands.

“Fine. I will not buy you another if he gets lost.” Eleena says with a stern tone. She catches my gaze and offers a defeated smile. “This is the third one we’ve bought her.” 

We?

“How old is she?” I ask. 

“Almost four. I blink and all those years are gone.” She says and touches her abdomen in the way pregnant people touch their protruding bellies.

The lift stops at the end of its line. The cold Hoth air blasts my face. The hot sun burns my eyes. The realization of the importance of my task fills me with dread. Blood drains, I feel faint, I feel nauseous, I feel…

Like I’m standing before a perilous mountain, too tall, too steep, too vast for me. I am at the base, looking up at the marvel of nature. I know the task before me, I know I must. But I am afraid. Afraid for my life, and what it would mean if I fail. 

****  
“Don’t go too far!” Eleena yells after Valoria’s carefree sprint. We walk out of Dorn Base. She in front, with me straggling behind. Now I see why Special Forces was contacted for what seemed like a simple bodyguard mission. I catch up to Eleena’s slight waddle and keep my pace just behind her.

Eleena takes out another bundle and wraps her lekkus with the same thermal fabric. There is a certain gracefulness to her movements, a gracefulness that comes from survival. I see because...well, because I know. She stands under the warmth of the sun, face tilted upward to clasp the headgear under her chin. The features of her, the symmetry, I find it hard to look at anything else, for no other reason than the fixation on her beauty. Soft wisps of lines sit at the edge of her eyes, they mark the journey of her life. 

I can feel my eyes on each stroke of her arms. Dressed for the harsh weather we’re in, her long coat zipped to her jawline with thick heavy boots for the snowy terrain. A slight bump protrudes from her midsection, a life unborn. I did not see her expectant gait under the dark of the base. But now, standing in the harsh sun, I understand. Just as I miss so many other things in life, I only realize when it is too late.

As we near the perimeter of Dorn Base, Eleena stops to admire the landscape before us: pure white glittering fields with no sign of its end. Small flakes of fresh snow begin to fall.

Valoria squeals. “Mama, it’s snowing!” She pulls off her mask, sticks her tongue out into the freeze, and laughs.

“She has not seen snow before,” Eleena explains, “neither have I.” She looks up at the clear blue sky, a smile tugs on the corners of her lips. A few flakes settle on her face, dotted on the tips of her eyelashes. They instantaneously turn to drops of moisture from her body heat, glimmering in the rays of the sun. She blinks, they form as one and fall down the side of her face, as if shedding a tear born from the revival of a distant memory. It hugs the curve of her cheek, holding desperately onto nothing. She wipes it away with her hand and turns to see me. Perhaps I have been staring at her too long, even my helmet cannot break the intensity. I look down at my feet, with a surge of heat accelerating to the core of my being.

She walks, following the steps of her daughter, who is crouched and building some sort of structure with gloved hands in the snow. I hear a low hum in the sky behind us. Valoria stands and looks in my direction.

“Look, Markus, a cruiser!” She holds her doll up in the air. An Imperial cruiser looms over the atmosphere of Hoth. “Papa is on the cruiser right, Mama?” 

“I am not sure, maybe.” Eleena looks up with a hand on her forehead, shielding the sun from her eyes. 

The delusions I have as to the lineage of Valoria evaporate just as the cruiser disappears into hyperspace. It is entirely possible that there has been some misunderstanding, which has led me to draw conclusions where there are none to be had. I tell myself this lie. I can feel the discomfort of truth through the thick of my armour. 

By the time I realize the hold my thoughts have on me, Eleena and Valoria are already quite far ahead. I jog towards them, slowing down as I near her pregnant figure. I stay a few paces behind Eleena as the pair of them frolic in the snow. I survey our surroundings, it is as empty and lifeless as Hoth should be. Its silence broken intermittently with a child’s laughter and a mother’s kind words of encouragement.

I look at them, and a deep sadness swells within, it wakes me to memories lost to the occupation of my mind. It was just years ago when I had the same joy. Years that seemed short, compared to what I know now. My jaw clenches, teeth grind, a sharp sourness in my nose and my eyes water. I turn to see a jutting rockface near us, a distraction to keep my mind from the torture of dreaming awake. I hold my blaster rifle closer to my chest, but my arms yearn for the comfort of something else. 

“Where are you from Takumi?” By the time I see her, she is already stepping beside me, walking the same speed as me. 

“Oh! Uh...Dromund Kaas, my lady. Apologies, only my mother calls me Takumi, I usually go by Tak.” Only my mother and one other person, who has forgotten the sound of my name. 

Eleena chuckles. “Tak, you are from Dromund Kaas?” she asks.

“Yes, I was born there, but moved around quite a bit in my youth.” I stop there and do not see the need to elaborate further. 

For a while, we walk, with only the sound of the crunch of snow underneath our boots.

“How long have you been in the Imperial military?” Eleena asks again, with her eyes keenly on Valoria, who is making snowballs and throwing them at an imaginary wampa.

“About two years, in Special Forces.” It is easy to earn promotions when there is nothing else to divide your attention from your career.

“And you already made captain, your mother must be proud.” 

“She was.” 

Eleena falls quiet at my response. Nothing is more profound than the loss of someone who still lives. 

I do not mean to stop her from talking to me. It is simply too hard to be conversational when so much is at stake. I should be doing more. I need to be doing more, so that my mind has no time to think about the past. But enough about me.

“How...how did you and Darth Malgus meet?” I ask with a chill that shocks through my entire body. 

A pause. She stops. She looks up at the cloudless sky above us, eyes searching for something unseen. 

“I’m prying. Apologies, my lady. Please forget I asked.” I flounder over my words. 

“I do not enjoy telling the story because it makes me remember what I’d rather forget. We all have those memories, no?” She still watches the sky, her eyes reflect the scars she hides.

Another pause, but from me. 

“He saved me on Geonosis, from a certain predicament with my former Master.” She turns in my direction. She can only see my helmet, but I can see the gratitude in her eyes.

“Forgive me, but I find it hard to believe.” I look down at my feet again. I serve Sith and all they have shown me are the consequences of lives lacking in empathy, compassion and love. 

“Most do. He only allows you to see one side of him. But he has saved me, more than once.” Her speech slows as the secret of her soul reveals itself. I am surprised at her candor, and his actions. 

“He must have been enthralled by your beauty, my lady.” My voice breaks in the honesty of my words.

She laughs, her eyes crease into happiness. “Is it really that hard to believe? He was my employer and I was his employee, it was as bland as that in the beginning, I assure you.” 

“Then why did he save you, my lady?”

“You’d have to ask him yourself.”

I take a moment to understand. Her words stay in my mind, I hope they will forever. 

“Where’s Valoria?” Fear and anxiety trap the softness of her voice. 

I look around. No sign of Valoria. I ready my blaster rifle and walk the perimeter of the emptiness around us. Eleena calls for her daughter, her cries echo in the stillness of the air. No wind. No snow. Nothing. Just the arrogant brightness of the sun. A small peek of a child’s head emerges from a large boulder just before the end of the hill. Valoria waves. Two long sighs come out of both Eleena and I. We walk to her with Eleena leading the way.

I’ve been in the military since I could speak and there is something that cannot be taught, no matter how studious one is: Intuition. It comes with experience, it comes with making mistakes, mistakes that could cost you your life. It tells me to be on guard. There is a change in the breeze, I feel it all around us. A bitter spectral aura. I jam the hilt of my blaster rifle to my shoulder, aiming the barrel at the static air.

I lose my sight for a quick moment from a reflection of something metallic under the sun. I shield my eyes with my forearm. A wave of panic, I look to the boulder, where Eleena and Valoria should be. Eleena stands, as frigid as a piece of ice. She takes shelter behind the boulder and a running figure of a child bolts from the side of her. Lines of fresh blaster fire aim towards her direction, I try to see where Valoria is, but instinct tells me to act first, find later. I engage the ambush. Talz. There are eight. Some with blasters, some with long blades. All are out for blood. I activate a thermal detonator at the group and take out a couple of them with the rest still coming towards me. Good, at least this gives them a chance to escape. 

“Run!” I yell. As loud as I can through my helmet, through the sounds of charged shots and the clashes of blades on my blaster rifle. “Back to the base, hurry!” 

I take out two more Talz with my rifle. The remaining Talz circle around me, I am ablaze in blaster fire and the metallic reflection of their blades. My breaths, short; mind, focused. A haze of fur covered limbs come at me, I try to block and parry as much as I can. I dig my vibroblade into soft flesh, a quarter turn of the hilt, eviscerating tissue and organs with the lingering scent of charred skin. The sting of a gash to my calve, and I fall to my knees. A swift punch comes towards my head, meant to make me unconscious, but I know better than that. I move to get out of the way of the flying fist, only to feel the bite of a blaster shot to my shoulder. I wince. 

Kneeling, I shoot at what I can see. All I see is a blur of white fur, with accusing dark eyes. A blade swings to my ribs, I try to get out of its trajectory but I am just a hair too close, it scores a piece of my armour, revealing a cut to my torso. A warm sensation pours out of me, drops of it stamp on the white snow. Another blaster shot to my thigh, I slump. I pull the trigger on my blaster rifle, a wide angle to deter any more offense. I feel the cold Hoth air from inside my helmet, a blaster shot has grazed the side of my head, another inch to the right, I would be dead. 

I see...the clear blue sky and Talz all around me. The one in front holds its blade high, it swings down to the height of my neck, I block, the blade destroys the comms on my forearm. Hot blood pours, I can feel myself getting colder, less resistant. 

Peace before dying is the greatest luxury. 

Series of blaster shots, different from the ones I have been deflecting, pierce through the tense confrontation. Lines of red energy marking precisely for the group of Talz standing over me. Two of them fall in quick succession. Whoever it is has good aim. The last two, one blasting at my unknown saviour, the other, with a flicker of sweet revenge in its dark eyes and a blade of blinding silver high in the sun, about to come slicing down. A shot penetrates through the center of the black eyes looking down at me. The Talz and the blade falls quietly on the snow. The one with the blaster flees.

I hear myself pant from the adrenaline. I was so sure of death. I look back at the direction where the red blaster shots came from. I see only Eleena, legs wide in a combat stance, with her coat open, revealing the curve of her pregnant state. She is equipped with blasters in each hand, fresh smoke emitting from both barrels. She releases a satisfied sigh, holsters her weapons and walks to my living corpse.

“My lady...I” I have nothing to say. Shocked, stunned, confused.

She kneels at my body and removes my breached helmet. I groan in the movement I have to make to get my headgear off. She fingers through my hair, assessing for trauma on my head.

“No wounds here.” She smiles. “Though I cannot say the same to the rest of your body.” She looks down at me and holds my hand, her warm palm melts the snow I anxiously fisted. “Let’s get you back to the base, Captain Liu.”

I stagger, straining to stand. She lends a shoulder to me, I shake my head to refuse.

“Tak, you cannot walk unaided.” She reaches my arm over her shoulder and she limps, with me.

Valoria comes running towards us. Her big green eyes see the vulnerability of my body. “You’re hurt.” she says softly. 

“Yes she is.” Eleena stops. She bends down to Valoria, opens her backpack and pulls out a small canister of kolto. She sprays the green liquid on my wounds. The pain eases from her tenderness. “Better?”

I nod my head. A string of questions loop in my mind. Why does she have two blasters? Was she trained in combat? Why train her in combat? Why am I a bodyguard to someone who is so obviously capable of defending herself? Why is there a kolto canister in her daughter’s backpack? 

There is a small object half-buried in the snow by my feet. I pick it up and dust it off. A doll. Valoria’s doll, Markus. I give it back to her, she hugs it tightly. 

“Put Markus in your backpack, Valoria. He was almost lost again.” She says to her daughter and wraps my arm around her once more. Valoria obeys her mother’s instructions without objection. I feel the plumpness of her lekkus on my arm. I try to concentrate on the burn of my wounds.

“My lady, thank you.” I look into her eyes. Usually, I would not dare to, but I am compelled. She could have left me there to die, that’s what I would have done. Pregnant and with a small child? It would have been impossible for me to stand my ground and fight back, and yet she did, and with such deadly accuracy. 

“I only did what was right.” She smiles. “Perhaps that is why he saved me.” 

We walk the length of the way back to Dorn Base, in understanding silence. 

****  
The door to their suite slides open. A foreboding shadow stands on the outside of the room. Valoria runs towards it and throws herself towards the darkness.

“Father, we saw the Talz!” She looks up at the man who hired me.

“You did?” Darth Malgus’s eyes focus on Eleena for an explanation. He strides to her, long black cape flows in the tread of his boots.

“We strayed too far from the base and were ambushed by a group of them. We were lucky Captain Liu was there.” Eleena regards my wounds. “There was no need to wait, Tak. Now that he has returned, you must go to the infirmary as soon as you can.” She touches a hand to my arm, the pain eases.

“Is that so, captain?” His eyes interrogate me for the truth.

“My lord, my lady is mistaken, I—“ I look over at Eleena, who is now standing near Malgus, with a finger to her lips, shushing my words before they come out. “Yes, it is as my lady says.” I avert his gaze. My toes curl at the lie I told.

“I am glad both of you returned safely.” He pats Valoria on her head, she grins. His hand moves to hold Eleena’s for a second before a quick pause on her expectant abdomen. “Captain, your fortitude is to be commended. The Talz are formidable warriors, they are not easily deterred. It is fortunate we have someone such as you in our military ranks.”

“Thank you my lord.” I bow, eyes down to the floor. I dare not look at him, he will find out the truth. I turn to leave, only to hear heavy footsteps follow behind me. 

“I have some parting words for you, captain.” the footsteps say.

I stop at the other side of the door, the shadow stands in front of me and leads me out of earshot to the occupants inside the room.

“I do not doubt your skills, but if you take your sight off of my family again, you will have more to lose than the skin on your arm.” 

With every bit of courage I have left, I lift my head, eyes both dark and bright glare at me, nose wrinkled in displeasure. The mechanical sounds of his mask strangle me, smother the breath I need in order to speak. I open my mouth and croak.

“Am I understood?” 

“Y—yes, my lord.” 

“Go tend to your wounds, return at 0800 tomorrow.” He turns and steps inside. I watch his back as he leaves. A wave of heat crashes against my face, a lust, an attraction. I will not deny what I feel. 

As the door slides close, I see him take off his mask and go to Eleena. He kisses her, The passion of his longing can be felt from where I stand, it is spilling over the brim, unbound by societal pressures. It feels pure, it feels real. Valoria stands by him, with small arms stretched high in the air. 

“Up! up!” she says. She rises, from the floor towards the ceiling. Her giggles travel through walls. Malgus’s hand opens in front of him, the signature pose of a force user levitating an object. She floats in the air, free.

“Down! down!” she exclaims. And with that she falls, right into the safety of her father’s arms. They laugh. He kisses her on the forehead and the three of them retire further into the room. I catch a glance of Eleena’s face before she disappears. She smiles, but it is unlike any smile I’ve ever seen before.

The door closes. I leave them to their familial bliss. I walk towards the infirmary, completely forgetting about the pain of my wounds until I squeeze the gash on my forearm. Their display of love enchants me. It is reassuring, unabashed and unobstructedly clear. It hurts me to see but I am elated.

If a Sith can love, so can I.

**Author's Note:**

> I initially wanted to write something that showed off how fearless Eleena is, but this became more than that. A happy accident. In my headcanon, Eleena was saved by Malgus more than once, I wrote a fic about it—“Helpless”, if you’re interested. 
> 
> Everything I write is totally self-indulgent. Yes, to some, it's weird to create a whole new universe for an already established villain, but that's how much I love Malgus. He deserves happiness, with Eleena. Thank you for reading something I didn't think anyone would want to read. 
> 
> Come visit me on [my tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/introversiontherapy).


End file.
